By Ronnie Harui
The Taiwan dollar led Asian currencies higher versus the U.S. dollar amid hopes of China-U.S. trade talks after President Trump signaled he was open to lowering U.S. tariffs on imports from China.
"At some point, I'm going to lower them because, otherwise, you could never do business with them," Trump said in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press."
In the coming week, the White House aims to unveil at least one deal with a country seeking to escape higher tariffs, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior administration official. Trump in return is seeking various benefits, such as agreements that trading partners purchase more U.S. goods and curb non-tariff barriers.
The U.S. dollar fell 3.7% to 29.57 New Taiwan dollars on Monday, after earlier touching NT$29.42, its lowest intraday level since March 2023, according to FactSet data. Also, the greenback fell 1.3% against the Malaysian ringgit, dropped 1.6% against the South Korean won, and declined 0.6% against the Singapore dollar, the data showed.
"USD/TWD's decline last Friday was historic and the decline continued," two members of OCBC's Global Markets Research team said, noting the Taiwan dollar posted its biggest one-day gain since 1988 on Friday.
The Taiwanese currency's massive gains are sparked by factors including prospects of negotiations between China and the U.S. and poor market liquidity amid holidays in parts of Asia on Monday, the members said in a research report. "Faster-than-expected pace of TWD appreciation had caught many market participants off guard, prompting a rush to convert USD into local currency," they added.
Write to Ronnie Harui at ronnie.harui@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 05, 2025 02:23 ET (06:23 GMT)
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